Electrical and electronic components may be exposed to aggressive, low-viscosity liquid media at their respective mounting locations. Among these electrical and electronic components, for example, rotational speed sensors in automatic transmissions may be exposed to automatic transmission fluid (ATF) filling the transmissions. Because of the very low viscosity of such fluids, such fluids tend to creep which means that they may affect components such as the rotational speed sensors. Accordingly, tight packaging of these electrical and electronic components is required.
In the case of electrical components used these days, such as the Hall elements, the attempt to achieve the sealing is made by extruding the components using a sealing material. This sealing material may be an epoxy resin or the like, so that no liquids are able to penetrate to the electrical and electronic components, because of encapsulation in the molding compound. The critical region, in this instance, is the location at which the current or voltage carrying circuit-board conductors or lead frames protrude out of the molding compound, for instance, out of the epoxy resin. Current experience has shown that, in spite of the sealing compound, the problem keeps arising that, under extreme load, liquids penetrate into the sealed electrical components anyway and are able to damage the electrical components by corrosion, for instance. The penetration of aggressive, low-viscosity media, such as the transmission oil mentioned before, may be favored, for instance, by fluxing agent residues, which have become attached, during the production of continuous material connections, in the contact area, such as during soldering, and which may consequently also be present in the sealing region. Fluxing agent residues prevent a flawless, tight connection between the sealing material and the respective circuit-board conductor.
One may provide a greater sealing length which acts to improve the seal. In the case of the extended sealing length, an extended creep path is impressed on the aggressive, low-viscosity medium penetrating the circuit-board conductors, until it has advanced up to the electrical contacting location. However, this extended sealing length usually also brings with it a greater design length of the whole electrical component, which, in turn, is not desirable for construction and cost reasons.